ROLLING STONE: STORIES FROM THE EDGE REVIEWED
“Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge” would’ve been the kind of thing that impressed me at 19. I swear that Almost Famous ruined a generation of critical writers trying to find a way to espouse new thoughts on pop culture before turning to shit shifting middle managers of corporate sites. While watching the documentary, the process to that point becomes way more clear. Jann Wenner saw the future and guided his magazine’s style to that point. Besides, the real writers could always go work at Creem.
Four hours of rock documentary material might seem overwhelming. Well, that’s because it is. Even VH-1 kept their never-ending rock retrospectives to hour installments and used different nights to chop them up. After all, how many times do you need to hear a 60 year old try to remember their cocaine usage while set to the cooling rhythm of “My Old School”? The grand takeaway from Alex Gibney’s sprawling love letter to Rolling Stone is that anyone can call themselves a taste maker.
Always remember that this is the same magazine that ignored the Detroit sound for years, discovered Philly’s music way too late and constantly found new ways to drag their nuts across Robert Plant’s face. Being the first success at something doesn’t make you the best, it just makes you the loudest. Here’s to a documentary about the loudest most opinionated people in the room.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Deleted Scenes
- Extended Interviews
A/V STATS
- 1.78:1 standard definition transfer
- DTS-HD MA 5.1
